AWT Hatteras Wave Jam – News

Camille Juban Wins the 2012 AWT Hatteras Wave Jam and takes the lead in the AWT overall ranking

Nice aerial view on the beaches at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, where the Labrdor current and the Florida current meet each other.

The 2012 Hatteras Wave Jam saw difficult conditions: “We had a hard event for conditions in Hatteras, but the last few hours pulled through to get results for Pro, Women and Youth.” tourmanager Sam Bittner announced a day after the event was over.

The final day of the Hatteras Wave Jam saw a solid swell hit the Island. With only a few hours left in the contest window the wind gods smiled on the AWT once again providing incredible port-tack conditions to run the Pro, Women and Youth heats plus an Amateur/Masters Expression Session for a Chinook Pro-1 Carbon boom. The wind was light with 10 -15 knots, but strong enough to run heats as the waves were breaking quite clean.

Camille Juban nails a perfect Goiter in the final.

The Pro heats were set for 15-minutes and the judges score cards were quickly filled up as there were plenty of waves providing long and rip-able rides. The final heat came down to an epic battle between Camille Juban, Fabrice Beaux and Morgan Noireaux. It was a super close contest with Juban’s Goiter giving him the edge over the smooth sailing Beaux and slashy Noireaux. Wave legend Kevin Pritchard made it in 4th.

Fabrice Beaux with a nice Aerial in light conditions.

The Youth final was a head-to-head contest between local Ian Stokes and west coast ripper Fiona Wylde. Stokes’ experience in the challenging Hatteras conditions made a difference allowing him to sail to victory. Miho Tanaka, a rising star in the ladies fleet, took the Women’s crown by narrowly defeating Fiona Wylde, Ingrid Larouche and Sam Bittner. The women had sailed a heat in lack-luster conditions on the previous day so it was good to see them get a second chance in some bigger waves and stronger wind.

The Amateur/Masters Expression Session gave all the sailors watching the exciting pro heats a chance to hit the water and show their wave riding ability. It was crowded on the water, but there were so many waves it made for an action packed 20-minute heat. The standout sailor and winner of a Chinook Pro-1 Carbon Boom was MacRae Wylde… congrats! With the competition in the books and the sun setting everyone headed over to the Koru Beach Klub for an amazing final send-off party. Beer flowed and North Carolina BBQ was enjoyed. Not only were all the winners crowned for the Hatteras Wave Jam, but everyone in attendance won something in the huge raffle. The final drawings of the evening were for a Goya Guru sail and a Hot Sails Maui FireLight sail…leaving these winners in particular walking out of the party with great toys to play with this Fall!

KP with one of his signature style one foot off Backloop.

Results at the Hatteras Wave Jam 2012:

Pro men:

1. Camille Juban

2. Morgan Norieaux

3. Fabrice Beaux

4. Kevin Pritchard

5. Nathan Mershon

5. Keith McCulloch

Women:

1. Miho Tanaka

2. Fiona Wylde

3. Ingrid Larouche

4. Sam Bittner

Youth:

1. Ian Stokes

2. Fiona Wylde

Overall standings with Camille Juban in the lead

Top 4 rankings count to the overall. There are 6 wave events this year, so if there was someone to do all 6 events, they would drop 2. There is one more event to happen. It will be the final on Maui, Hawaii from the 25th October till the 3rd of November 2012.

Morgan Noireaux, one of the young upcoming super talents, currently ranked in third position overall!

In the overall ranking it got quite tight in the men´s Pro category as Camille Jubon took another victory at Hatteras and took the overall lead. He now has a realistic chance to win the 2012 tour. At the moment Levi Siver has three victories. He participated in first three events of the season and won them all. It will be an interesting final at Hookipa as both know the spot very well. And there are several names on the list, who will battle it out for the third place on the podium in the end of the season like young Morgan Noireaux, who is currently ranked 3rd overall, Kevin Pritchard, Bernd Roediger, Graham Ezzy, Russ Faurot, Marcilio Browne. Nathan Mershon, the 2011 tour winner will not be able to repeat his victory from 2011, but still can save a podium result in the end of the day. He is currently ranked 6th.

In the ladies fleet it´s a hard fight in between Sam Bittner, Ingrid Larouche and Fiona Wilde for the overall title. AT the moment Fiona has the lead. Ingrid and Sam at the same points.

5 Comments »

I went to Hatteras not planning on competing, just going there to do photos and videos. All the locals were like, man, you have to compete, we want to see you out on the water. I had no gear, no boards, no sails, nada.

I looked around and the guys at Open Air Sports in Hatteras, just got their new Ezzy Panther Elites, and were like, yah, you can use those.. I was like perfect. As the week went on, I kept looking for a board to use, but with the forecast the way it was looking, I wasn’t really searching too hard. Like I said, I only really went there to film it and promote the contest.

So finally we get some conditions, and as I am walking down, I finally see a starboard, that was the right size and I was like, Hey, can I use that board for my heat. He was like this board?? I have about 5 years on this thing. You cant want to use this one. I was like, well I only have one choice. SO I got the 85 Kode out there and got 4th on it. Not too bad. That board is still pretty good.